'Strictly' final peaks with 11.4 million

Strictly Come Dancing bowed out with a series high on Saturday night, early figures suggest.

The final results show - screened on BBC One between 8.40pm and 9.40pm - averaged 10.42m (42.3%). A peak audience of 11.41m (46.2%) were watching at 9.40pm when it was announced that Chris Hollins had triumphed over Ricky Whittle.

Earlier, the final performances show brought in 10.05m (41.5%) between 6.35pm and 7.40pm. It followed on from the second series finale of Merlin, seen by 5.88m (27.9%).

Also on BBC One on Saturday night, Casualty picked up 6.5m (27.8%) at 7.40pm, then the latest Lottery draw was seen by 6.28m (27.1%). After the Strictly result, an episode of Live At The Apollo appealed to 6.13m (28.5%).

ITV1's reairing of Take That: The Circus Live managed 3.21m (13.4%) between 6.30pm and 8pm, then Stars on the Street, a documentary about the famous faces to have graced the Corrie cobbles, took 3.57m (15.1%). A screening of romcom Love Actually had 3.73m (18.4%) from 9pm.

The last ever episode of Wife Swap was seen by a lowly 890k (3.7%) on Channel 4 in the 9pm hour. A repeat of a classic Celebrity Wife Swap between Sam Fox and Freddie Starr maintained 890k (4.7%) an hour later, then a rebroadcast of the show's first ever episode put in 700k (5.9%). Earlier, a Time Team Special set at Dover Castle interested 1.46m (6.2%).

BBC Two's A History Of Scotland picked up 1.44m (6.1%) in the 8pm hour, then a screening of Blade Runner: The Final Cut averaged 1.27m (5.8%) over two hours.

Five started the evening with 707k (2.9%) for a rerun of NCIS at 6.50pm, then aired four episodes of CSI under the theme 'Grissom's Greatest'. The first was the most-watched, averaging 1.1m (4.7%), then the audience dipped to 861k (3.5%). At 9.40pm, the third episode appealed to 1.08m (5.1%), then a final episode logged 858k (5.4%) an hour later.

BBC One led primetime overall with an average audience share of 34.6% to ITV1's 15.5%. BBC Two was third with 6.7%, followed by Channel 4 with 4.8% (+1: 0.7%) and Five with 4.1%.

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional